Sacramento Kings: Best trade in team history with every NBA franchise

Best trades in Sacramento Kings history: Doug Christie becomes a defensive powerhouse

This was a textbook case of a fleece, a simple exchange of one player each that’s easy to form an opinion on. And believe me, this one is very easy to form an opinion on. Bouncing onto the scene in 1995, Corliss Williamson was drafted No. 13 overall by Sacramento and would spend five seasons with the team, averaging a solid but not exceptional 12 points and 4.1 rebounds per game during that time.

The Raptors wanted to move away from Doug Christie, who was turning 30-years-old at the turn of the millennia, and picking up Williamson seemed like a sensible decision. This trade seemed to awaken something in Christie, as Sacramento was the perfect place to put his grit to full use. Christie racked up four All-Defensive Team selections in four years with the Kings, where he averaged 2.2 steals per game.

Christie was an essential piece to those early 2000’s Kings rosters, and without him, it’s hard to say if they would have ever made those deep playoff runs. Ironically, Williamson would come back in 2004 to finish his career with the Kings anyway, so it was an even bigger win for the Kings here.

• Sacramento received: 32.8 future win shares
• Toronto received: 0.8 future win shares

Back in 1975, the Kansas City-Omaha Kings dealt away Ron Behagen and a 1976 second-round pick that became Major Jones to the New Orleans Jazz. In return, the Kings would receive New Orleans’ first-round pick, which would become Bill Robinzine. If that name seems familiar, it’s because it’s the third time a trade involving Robinzine has been featured in this list. Robinzine built a respectable career for himself, averaging 10.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game over a five-year stretch as the Kings’ starting power forward.

Ron Behagen would register two good but not great seasons with the Jazz before being shipped off to Atlanta. Major Jones, on the other hand, spent three years bouncing around smaller leagues other than the NBA despite being drafted, before finally coming over in 1979 where he’d average a spectacular 4.4 points per game. He never registered a single minute for the Jazz. Robinzine, as we know, would eventually be traded in a massive steal that saw Steve Johnson and Joe Meriweather join the squad.

• Sacramento received: 21.2 future win shares
• Utah received: 6.1 future win shares

With trade relations with a few of these teams lacking, ideally, general manager Monte McNair can improve on this list and find a few more steals for the Sacramento Kings. As long as that trade doesn’t happen with the Lakers… never the Lakers.